The Making of Rita's Harem: Manservant #001-Barry Pepper

   As many of us readers of romance, historicals in particular, know, a fondly and widely used element in our beloved love stories is 'The Harem'. For those of you who don't know, a harem is a secluded section in a house (usually in the palace of some foreign ruler) used to harbor women. These enclosures are usually forbidden to all men (except eunuchs) and the 'master'. Pretty much, it's a place where men of means stow away their sex slaves.
   Wikipedia defines it as: 

"Harem (Turkish, from Arabic حرم ḥaram 'forbidden place; sacrosanct, sanctum', related to حريم ḥarīm 'a sacred inviolable place; female members of the family' and حرام ḥarām, 'forbidden; sacred') refers to the sphere of women in a usually polygynous household and their quarters which is enclosed and forbidden to men. It originated in the Near East and came to the Western world via the Ottoman"

   While us ladies may take exception to this outright form of objectification and oppression, we can't resist swooning when the handsome hero-savior swoops in and saves the heroine from such a damnable fate.
    But politics aside, a place where I could 'store' sexy men and have my way with them sounds decidedly alluring! Since there are probably several laws and an amendment or two in the Constitution prohibiting the ACTUAL retention of human beings against their will for ones personal use, it's time to step into Rita's land of make believe ;)

Here's Manservant #001 from Rita's Harem ;) !

Barry Pepper 

Barry has one of the most intoxicating bone structures I've ever seen!

Competition only to maybe Daniel Craig (another manservant to be added to the Harem).

I personally find his perpetual scowl and arrogant confidence a major turn on,

but when he smiles, it just transforms his faces and robs me of breath!

He is especially gorgeous in military and war movies. I first fell in love with him

while watching 'Saving Private Ryan' and I will never forget the shock I felt my first

time watching it and seeing Barry's charcter get blown up =(.
He oozes masculinity and war movies are the

perfect places to see it in all its exuberance.

I added this picture because you can really see his overwhelming manliness!
Look at him not giving a 'hoot'.

He reminds me of the quintessential devil-may-care rake hell! Just look at him! *sigh*

And finally, we can't forget those piercing blue eyes! I imagine
Sebastian St.Vincent from 'Devil In Winter'

may have had eyes similar to these.

Barry has a unique physicality. His strong features only work in certain instances. If he losses to much weight or grows his hair out, he is decidedly less-appealing (in my opinion), but overall, I can't resist this sexy war hero ;)

Send me your suggestions for sexy men and maybe I'll find a way

to steal them and add them to Barry's ranks!

*Acknowledgments to Kate(babs) from Babbling about Books and More with her recent twitter status and Gaelen Foley with her recent 'men as gifts' event on Avon Romance Blog for giving me the incentive and push to follow through on this long ago idea. Even I worry about going to far sometimes with my spotlight posts, but this is all in good fun and in the name of pleasant sights for the eyes, so enjoy!